Sainsbury’s have announced their new vegan-friendly range will go on sale next month. According to the Guardian newspaper it is their intention to sell the products in the chiller section alongside real meats.

The supermarket are hoping to target the emerging market of ‘flexitarians’ of which there are an estimated 22 million in the UK.

According to a Spanish study these are people who do not exclude meat and dairy products from their diet but reduce them instead.

Traditionally in the UK, substitute meat products are sold in the vegetable section of stores. While a number of retailers have chosen to designate dedicated vegan sections, Sainsbury's will trial their side-by-side approach in 400 of their stores.

Plant-based burgers

The products sold will be “lookalike” burgers with mince manufactured by Danish firm Naturli’s Foods, who have been developing plant-based foods since 1988.

The burgers, Naturli say, are not designed to taste like beef but they do have an underlying ‘meatiness’. The inclusion of beetroot also helps to recreate the colour of raw, medium and well-done as it cooks as well as adding a “juice” when bitten into, similar to real beef.

The replacement of natural animal products with substitutes has been a growing concern for many global food companies. France has a law which bans vegetarian companies calling their products sausages, mince or bacon and on the dairy front, the EU has banned plant-based products from having ‘dairy style’ names.

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